The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1887-03-27
JOS. BROWNS REVENGE.
ASr0RY OF THE EARLY SETTLE.
MINT OF TENNESSEE.
How He PilOted James R0bertson's
Men to the NickaJack Cave
Heavens Judgment.

by fierce tribe of Indians calleC
Chickamaugas. The first settlers o
Nashville came into collision will
them when they took their perilou.
way down the Tennessee to that re-
mote outpost of civilization, and fol-
many years theV waged an unrelent.
ing war upon the whites. Time anC
again Sewer invaded their strong.
holds at and near Chattanooga, burn.
ed their towns, destroyed their crops
and drove the bravest of their war
riors like frightened deer into the
mountains. But they could not be
snbdued until Sewer could discover
their mountain Businesses. Hiding
in them till the storm was over, the
miscreants would again emerge into
the daylight, rebuild their birchbark
cabins and resume their barbarous
warfare.
For eighteen years they were the
terror of the entire border. Sewer
vas well nigh everywhere, but even
his sleepless vigilance could not
guard every scattered dwelling. Is
suing in small parties, these wretches
would fall at midnight upon some
unprotected farm house, plumber
and STAY the occupants, and be back
in their inaccessible haunts before
pursuit could be undertaken. Every
white man prayed for vengence upon
them, but until their secret haunts
were known the prayer could not be
answered. At last, however, came
the STRIPPING David who was to meet
this Goliath Of Gath, and through
him the power Of the Chickamaugas
was broken.
He was a boy of fifteen, named
Joseph Brown, and his story is a
remarkable instance of long studied
vengeance IN one so young; but space
will allow me to refer to only two of
its incidents. His father had been
allowed some lands in the vicinity of
Nashville for services in the Revolu-
ton, and in 1888 he set out, with
his family, to settle upon them.
Within a few miles of Chattanooga
his boat was suddenly surrounded
by about forty Indian canoes, and in
a few moments his headless body
lay at the bottom of the Tennessee.
His two oldest sons and four other
young men were at once murdered,
and his wife ard tour younger chill
dren made prisoners. Joseph's cap
ter was a young half breed brave
named CHA chatt-alla, who spared
his life that he might be the slave of
his mother, a degraded French
woman who had been brought up
and married among the Chickamau-
gas. He took Joseph to her cabin and
then returned to the boat to secure
his share Of the plumber. He had
scarcely gone when there appeared
at the door Of the cabin Cutteatoy,
the head chief of the small town of
Tuskegee, opposite Chattanooga,
with a dozen of his warriors, de-
manding the boy from the French
woman. He said the lad was old
enough to notice everything, and if
allowed to live would escape, and
some day pilot there an army to
destroy them all. The boy could
not understand his words, but he did
his actions. A dozen knives and
tomahawks cleaned above him, but
they did not fall, for the woman
sprang before the boy, declaring now
that he should not be murdered, and
saved his life.
For more than year the boy was
a prisoner among the Chickamaugas,
all sorts of hardships, but
discovering all their hid
ing places in the mountains. Then
he was liberated by John Sewer, and
returned TO his friends in South Car
olina.
Then the words of Cutteatoy
came to him, He is old enough TO
notice everything, and some day he
will ESQ., pe and bring an army here"
Again and again the words came to
the boy, till he id a became his con
trollin< thought. Gradua ly then it
began to dawn upon him that God
had saved his life for purpose, and
that purpose was vengeance upon the
Uhickamaugas.
But he kept his thoughts to him
self, for experience had taught him
to be silent and patient and wary.
So he waited till he was nearly 10,
and had grown to the stature of
Then he proposed to his
mother to carry out his fathers in
tention Of settling on their lands
near Nashville. This he did to be
within striking distance Of the
Chickamaugas.
They travelled overland to Nash
vile, and on his fathers lands the
boy, not yet 10, built a cabin, and as
sumed the duties of head of the
family.
Now the youth thought himself
Did enough to take a part in the
bloody drama that was being enacted
everywhere about him. Herepaired
to James Robertson, who had mill
tary command of the Nashville dis
trict, and told him that he knew the
secret Businesses of the river In
dams, and could pilot an army to
their rear which might destroy them.
Robertson heard him gladly, but
shook his head, saying that he could
do nothing. The orders of the gov
emmett we're imperative that both
he and Sewer should act strictly on
the defensive, and under no circum-
stances again invade the Cherokee
country. Spain held Louisiana and
the mouths of the Mississippi, and
was in alliance with the Creeks and
An attack upon them
would provoke collision with her,
and that the infant Republic was
not prepared for, while all the
wisdom and prudence of Washington
we're required to avoid another
war with Great Britain. So tor two
years Sewer and Robertson held their
hands, while death lurked beside
every mans dwelling. The farmer
could not fell tree, gather crop
Dr. sit in his doorway without a load
I'd rife beside him. In a population
Of 7040 in the Nashville district the
killed were from sixty to seventy